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List of the most influential people in Religious Studies,

#2301

Jonathan Campbell

#179934

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Jonathan G Campbell was a Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies & Early Judaism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol in Bristol, United Kingdom. He retired in 2017.

#2302

Agnes M. Brazal

#61581

Overall Influence

Agnes M. Brazal is a Filipina theologian, known for her work in feminist theology, a theology of migration, and cybertheology. Biography Brazal received her first degree in 1981, a BS in management engineering from Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. She later pursued studies in theology, first at Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City, before completing a STL and a SThD , both from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

#2303

Robert Dodaro

#163507

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Robert John Dodaro, OSA is an American priest of the Catholic Church. He is a specialist in the writings of St Augustine of Hippo. Dodaro is a 1973 graduate of St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan.

#2304

K. David Udayakumar

#180460

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

David Udayakumar was Principal of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai, affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College. Studies After early ministerial formation at the United Theological College, Bangalore from 1977–1981 at the United Theological College, Bangalore, affiliated to the nation's first University, the Senate of Serampore College, under the Principalship of Joshua Russell Chandran, he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity and in the ensuing year, he returned to the Seminary for pursuing a postgraduate course, Master of Theology from 1982–1985 specialising in New Testament under Professors K.

#2305

Andreas Hönisch

#55216

Overall Influence

1930 - 2008 (78 years)

Andreas Hönisch was the founder and Superior General of Servi Jesu et Mariae, and co-founder of the Katholische Pfadfinderschaft Europas. Biography Hönisch founded the new order of the Servi Jesu et Mariae in 1988. That same year, he was expelled by the Jesuits due to his traditional views of the Catholic doctrine and pedagogy. The first members of the order came from the Catholic Scouts of Europe founded by Hönisch. The SJM were recognized as a Congregation of Papal Right in 1994. The congregation runs a boarding school in northern Germany and is engaged in the Pastoral care of the Katholi...

#2306

Antonius Jan Glazemaker

#142148

Overall Influence

1931 - 2018 (87 years)

Antonius Jan Glazemaker served as the twenty-first Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, from 1982 to 2000. Born on April 19, 1931, to Old Catholic parents, Glazemaker was raised in the Netherlands during a period ecumenical initiatives and the creation of the World Council of Churches.

#2307

Dennis McCann

#129926

Overall Influence

Dennis P. McCann is the Wallace M. Alston Professor of Bible and Religion at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta/Decatur, Georgia, where he teaches in the fields of religious social ethics, comparative religious ethics, philosophy of religion, and Catholic studies. Before his tenure at Agnes Scott College beginning in 1999, McCann was Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. In 1992 he was named the first annual holder of the Wicklander Chair in Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University.

#2308

Mary Getui

#176703

Overall Influence

1959 - Present (65 years)

Mary Getui is a Kenyan theologian and professor of religious studies at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She is a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. In 2009, Getui was named a Moran of the Burning Spear. She was appointed as chair of the National Aids Control Council of Kenya that same year.

#2309

Guillermo W. Méndez

#154682

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Guillermo W. Méndez is a Guatemalan theologian, educated in Guatemala, Central America, and in North America. After two decades serving as a Theology Professor in Guatemala, deeply challenged by Liberation Theology, he researched Law, Economics and Politics. Former member of the Latin American Theological Fraternity and the theological commission of the World Evangelical Fellowship, he developed a concern for the poor and engaged in the transformation of the Civil Law system of his native Guatemala, to undermine the privileges of the ruling political class and reform, through political and ...

#2310

Bulcsú Hoppál

#172130

Overall Influence

1974 - Present (50 years)

Bulcsú Kál Hoppál is a Hungarian theologian and philosopher. Biography In 1999 he received a Bachelor's degree in Sacred Theology at Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem in Budapest. In 2002 he received a Licentiate there in the same subject—the equivalent of a Ph.D. In 2003, he received the degree of Magister der Philosophie from the International Academy for Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. He is one of the vice-presidents of the Hungarian Association for the Academic Study of Religion.

#2311

James Colaianni

#106064

Overall Influence

1922 - 2016 (94 years)

James F. Colaianni was an American Catholic lay theologian, author, publisher, lawyer, and activist. Early life He was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1922. In 1939, Colaianni graduated from St. Joseph’s High School in Paterson, NJ and attended Seton Hall University. Colaianni served in the US Army during World War II in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany, attaining the rank of technical sergeant. Following his honorable discharge, his subsequent antiwar convictions began to emerge.

#2312

Ellen Wondra

#173607

Overall Influence

Ellen K. Wondra is an American theologian. She is research professor emerita of theology and ethics at the Bexley Seabury Theological Seminary Federation. Wondra studied at Pomona College, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and the University of Chicago Divinity School. She was formerly Editor in Chief of the Anglican Theological Review. In 2014 Wondra was elected to the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.

#2313

Martha L. Moore-Keish

#117357

Overall Influence

Martha L. Moore-Keish is an American theologian ordained in the Presbyterian Church . Her work is primarily focused on Reformed theology, liturgical theology and ecumenical theology, including engagement with interfaith issues around the world. She currently engages this work as the J.B. Green Associate Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.

#2314

Joakim Garff

#124353

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Joakim Garff is a Danish theologian and Søren Kierkegaard scholar at Søren Kierkegaard Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. He has written several books on Kierkegaard including Soren Kierkegaard: A Biography.

#2315

Teresia Mbari Hinga

#170084

Overall Influence

Teresia Mbari Hinga was a Kenyan Christian feminist theologian and a professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University in California. She was a founding member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.

#2316

Hebe Charlotte Kohlbrugge

#106336

Overall Influence

1914 - 2016 (102 years)

Hebe Charlotte Kohlbrugge was a Dutch Protestant theologian and Second World War resistance member. She was a member of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church for eleven months and assisted the reverend Günther Harder in Fehrbellin. Kohlbrugge was involved in spiritual resistance against Nazi Germany through the secret distribution of a pamphlet in the Netherlands and Switzerland during the Second World War. After the war, she worked as the secretary of the Germany Commission in the Council for Church and Government of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1947, holding responsibility for restoring ties with...

#2317

Steen Skovsgaard

#175648

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Steen Skovsgaard is a Danish prelate of the Church of Denmark serving as the Bishop of Lolland–Falster from 2005 to 2017. He was replaced by Marianne Gaarden. Life After graduation in 1979, Skovsgaard became the vicar of Gellerup church in Århus. Between 1988 - 1989 he was served as vicar of Klaksvík in the Faroe Islands and in 1997, he became the Dean of Aarhus.

#2318

James E. Smith

#127370

Overall Influence

1939 - Present (85 years)

James Edward Smith is an American biblical scholar. Biography James E. Smith was born the third of four sons born to Fred and Thelma Smith. James E. Smith was born at St. Mary Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, unlike his two older brothers who were born in India while his parents were missionaries there. James’ father was a preacher who met his mother while ministering at a church while attending Cincinnati Bible Seminary. James was raised based on Biblical teachings and values. James Smith has been said to have always been “a planner- a doer- a manager- an arranger” even as a boy. These...

#2319

Ole Edvard Borgen

#120545

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

Ole Edvard Borgen was a Norwegian theologian and Methodist bishop. He was born in Lillestrøm as a son of meat merchant Omar Emil Borgen and Harda Pytte , and older brother of Peder Borgen. In June 1949 he married Martha Olava Rygge .

#2320

Jean Porter

#171618

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Jean Porter is an American theologian, currently the John A. O'Brien Endowed Professor of Theology at University of Notre Dame. To date, she has written "numerous articles and six books on the history of the Christian moral tradition and its contemporary relevance".

#2321

Hannibal Richard Cabral

#179410

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Hannibal Richard Cabral was the former principal of Karnataka Theological College, Mangalore, a seminary established in 1965 and affiliated to India's first University, the Senate of Serampore College. Cabral was appointed by the College Council as Principal in 2009 as John Sadananda, then principal, was elevated to the Bishopric of the Karnataka Southern Diocese of the Church of South India.

#2322

Robin Griffith-Jones

#109877

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Robin Griffith-Jones is a Church of England priest, Master of the Temple in London and a lecturer at King's College, London. Griffith-Jones was educated at Westminster School and New College, Oxford, before working at Christie's for some years. He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

#2323

Bernd Uhl

#128305

Overall Influence

1946 - 2023 (77 years)

Bernd Joachim Uhl was a German Roman Catholic prelate. Uhl was born in Germany and was ordained to the priesthood in 1974. He served as titular bishop of Malliana and as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg, Germany from 2001 until his resignation in 2018.

#2324

John Trillo

#133012

Overall Influence

1915 - 1992 (77 years)

Albert John Trillo was a Church of England bishop. John Trillo grew up in Cricklewood, North London, and was educated at the Quintin School and King's College, London. On leaving school he worked in the film industry, for British Lion, and obtained his BA degree as a part-time student. He was ordained in 1938 and was a curate at Christ Church, Fulham before becoming the priest in charge of St Michael's, Cricklewood. From 1945 he worked for the Student Christian Movement, pioneering its work in Yorkshire grammar schools and becoming its secretary. From 1950-1955 he was rector of Friern Barn...

#2325

Moshe Weinfeld

#52089

Overall Influence

1925 - 2009 (84 years)

Moshe Weinfeld , was a professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1994, he won the Israel Prize for Bible. Biography Moshe Weinfeld was born in Nowy Sącz, Poland. In 1965, Weinfeld earned a PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1969, he was appointed senior lecturer in Hebrew University's Bible department. In 1973, Weinfeld became associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 1978.

#2326

David Hewlett

#174309

Overall Influence

1957 - Present (67 years)

David Jonathon Peter Hewlett is a British Anglican priest, Methodist minister, and academic specialising in practical theology. Since 2003, he has served as Principal of The Queen's Foundation, an ecumenical theological college in Birmingham. He previously served in parish ministry in the Diocese of St Albans and the Diocese of Truro, and taught at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, at Trinity College, Dublin, on the South West Ministry Training Course, and at the University of Exeter.

#2327

Carole M. Cusack

#139001

Overall Influence

1962 - Present (62 years)

Carole M. Cusack is an Australian historian of religion, specialising in Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, western esotericism, and trends in contemporary religion. Currently employed at the University of Sydney, she has published a number of books during her career.

#2328

Martin Rösel

#150533

Overall Influence

1961 - Present (63 years)

Martin Rösel is a German protestant theologian of Old Testament and professor at the University of Rostock. Life Education In 1993 he received his doctorate in University of Hamburg and was then Academic Councilor for Hebrew and Old Testament at the University of Rostock. From 1999 he holds his habilitation in Old Testament earned at the University of Hamburg.

#2329

Jacques Berthelet

#105599

Overall Influence

1934 - 2019 (85 years)

Jacques Berthelet was a Canadian Roman Catholic bishop. Berthelet was born in Canada and was ordained to the priesthood in 1962. He was Superior General of the Clerics of Saint Viator from 1984 to 1986. He served as titular bishop of Lamsorti and as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Canada, from 1986 to 1996 and then as bishop of the diocese from 1996 to 2010.

#2330

Sean Doherty

#170424

Overall Influence

1980 - Present (44 years)

Sean William Doherty is a British Anglican priest and academic specialising in Christian ethics. Since June 2019, he has been Principal of Trinity College, Bristol, an evangelical Anglican theological college.

#2331

Ignatius Firzli

#179309

Overall Influence

1913 - 1997 (84 years)

Dom Ignatios Firzli , also known in Brazilian Portuguese as Ignatios Ferzli was a Melkite Greek Orthodox Christian priest and theologian who became Antiochian Metropolitan Bishop of Sao Paulo and head of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch for Brazil and South America.

#2332

Robert Lebel

#75306

Overall Influence

1924 - 2015 (91 years)

Robert Lebel was a Canadian Catholic bishop. Born in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, Canada, Lebel was ordained to the priesthood in 1950 and was appointed titular bishop of Alinda and auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil in 1974. In 1976, he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Valleyfield and retired in 2000. On 20 May 2015, he died in the Mallersdorf Abbey in Bavaria.

#2333

Gordian Landwehr

#174385

Overall Influence

1912 - 1998 (86 years)

Father Gordian Landwehr was a German Dominican friar and, for over a decade, the Prior of the St. Albert Dominican Monastery in Leipzig. According to at least one source he was the most high-profile Roman Catholic priest in the German Democratic Republic.

#2334

Robert Craig

#72075

Overall Influence

1917 - 1995 (78 years)

Robert Craig Erwich CBE was an academic and church leader. He served from 1969 to 1980 as Principal of the University of Rhodesia and was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

#2335

A. Katherine Grieb

#175551

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Anne Katherine "Kathy" Grieb is an American biblical scholar and Episcopal priest. She has taught New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary since 1994, and is currently Meade Professor in Biblical Interpretation. She previously taught at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine.

#2336

Arturo de Hoyos

#90939

Overall Influence

1925 - 2016 (91 years)

Arturo de Hoyos was a professor at Brigham Young University and president of the Universidad Hispana in Provo, Utah. Hoyos was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico and raised in Chihuahua State and Sonora State in Northern Mexico. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then studied at BYU.

#2337

John Fenton

#107255

Overall Influence

1921 - 2008 (87 years)

John Charles Fenton was a British Church of England priest and New Testament scholar. He was Principal of Lichfield Theological College from 1958 to 1965, Principal of St Chad's College, Durham University from 1965 to 1978, and a Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1978 to 1991.

#2338

Judith Kaplan Eisenstein

Judith Kaplan Eisenstein

#150580

Overall Influence

1909 - 1996 (87 years)

Judith Eisenstein was an author, musicologist, composer, theologian and the first person to celebrate a bat mitzvah publicly in America . Life The bat mitzvah was created to address Judaism's gender imbalance and is the female equivalent of a boy's bar mitzvah, signifying entrance into religious majority. Judith, the eldest of four daughters born to Lena and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan , was the first person to celebrate a bat mitzvah publicly in America, which she did on March 18, 1922, aged 12, at her father’s synagogue the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City.

#2339

John L. Drury

#178180

Overall Influence

1978 - Present (46 years)

Jonathan Leonard Drury is an ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church of North America and an American theologian known for his contribution to Christology, Wesleyan Theology, Barthianism, Holiness Theology, and Protestant Theology. He is currently the Professor of New Testament and Spiritual Formation at Indiana Wesleyan University following his time as the Discipleship Pastor in their Spiritual Formation Office. He was also an Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry at Wesley Seminary.

#2340

Assad Sheikholeslami Sanandaji

#106975

Overall Influence

Dr. Assad Sheikholeslami is a prominent theologian and professor at Tehran University. Biography Dr. Sheikholeslami was an advisor to President Mohammad Khatami during his eight years of presidency with a focus on the issues related to the Sunni population of Iran. He was also a chairman at Tehran University.

#2341

Michael Worsnip

#157271

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Michael Worsnip is a South African Anglican theologian. He is author of several books, most notably Between the Two Fires - the Anglican Church in South Africa 1948 -1957; the book Priest and Partisan: A South African journey on anti-Apartheid activist and fellow Anglican priest, Father Michael Lapsley; the Novel Remittance Man. He was formerly the Secretary General of the Lesotho Council of churches and was deported from South Africa after giving an interview to the BBC.

#2342

Raphael Warnock

Raphael Warnock

#38615

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Raphael Gamaliel Warnock is an American Baptist pastor and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Warnock has been the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church since 2005.

#2343

Steve Wood

#80724

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Stephen Dwain "Steve" Wood is an American bishop. He is currently serving as the first bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas, a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America , as well as rector of St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

#2344

John Christian Wenger

#175547

Overall Influence

1910 - 1995 (85 years)

John C. Wenger was an American Mennonite theologian and professor. Life He was the eldest of five children born to A. Martin Wenger and his wife, Martha A. Rock . He was born at the Reese H. White farm in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, which his parents rented. His family moved in 1923 to Telford, where his father had gotten the job of janitor at the Rockhill Mennonite Church. Wenger was baptized on May 11, 1924, at the age of 13. He reported that he was disappointed when he did not feel a sense of "joy" and "Christian assurance" following the practice.

#2345

Werner Koch

#160787

Overall Influence

1910 - 1994 (84 years)

Werner Koch was a German pastor, evangelical-reformist theologian and journalist. Through his early involvement with the Confessing Church he came to wider prominence as an opponent of the Nazi government, spending time in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

#2346

Robert G. Morrison

#155445

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Robert Morrison is a historian of science and American scholar of Islam. He is the George Lincoln Skolfield, Jr. Professor of Religion and Middle Eastern and North Studies, Chair of the Religion Department, Director of the Middle Eastern and North African Studies Program at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, U.S. where he has been since 2008. Morrison is the current president of The Commission on History of Science and Technology in Islamic Societies.

#2347

Erwin Hecht

#100557

Overall Influence

1933 - 2016 (83 years)

Erwin Hecht, O.M.I. was a Roman Catholic bishop. Ordained to the priesthood in 1959, Hecht served as auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley, South Africa, from 1972 to 1974. He then served as bishop of the diocese from 1974 to 2009.

#2348

Bart Koet

#178060

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Bart J. Koet is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at Tilburg University and the Dean of Research at the same institution. He also is the president of the Centre for the Study of Early Christianity together with Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte of the Vrije Universiteit.

#2349

Peter Sugandhar

Peter Sugandhar

#168918

Overall Influence

1944 - 2017 (73 years)

B. P. Sugandhar was the fifth successor of Frank Whittaker as Bishop - in - Medak of the Church of South India whose bishopric lasted for more than a decade and half from 1993 through 2009 coinciding with the archbishoprics of Samineni Arulappa and Marampudi Joji of the Archdiocese of Hyderabad.

#2350

David Glyn Bowen

#148330

Overall Influence

1933 - 2000 (67 years)

David Glyn Bowen was a Welsh Congregationalist minister and missionary. He grew up in the Swansea area and attended Swansea Grammar School . He subsequently studied at University College, Cardiff, graduating in 1955 with an honours degree in Hebrew. He later studied at Memorial College, Brecon , and University of Princeton, United States where in 1959 he was awarded the degree of MTh. for a thesis on the Church of South India. On his return to the UK in 1960, he took up the appointment of minister of Castle Street Congregational Church, Tredegar, Monmouthshire. In 1963 he married, and under t...

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